Texas

Industry

Before 1900, Texas had an agricultural economy based, in the common
phrase, on "cotton, cows, and corn." When the first US
Census of Manufactures was taken in Texas in 1849, there were only 309
industrial establishments, with 1,066 wage earners; payrolls totaled
$322,368, and the value added by manufacture was a mere $773,896. The
number of establishments increased tenfold by 1899, when the state had
38,604 wage earners and a total value added of $38,506,130. During World
War II, the value added passed the $1-billion mark, and by 1982, the total
was $53.4 billion.

In 1997, the value of all shipments by manufacturers was $302 billion, 2nd
only to California. Three of the state's leading industrial
products—refined petroleum, industrial organic chemicals, and
oil-field machinery—all stem directly from the petrochemical
sector. Major oil refineries are located at Houston and other Gulf ports.
Aircraft plants include those of North American Aviation and Chance-Vought
at Grand Prairie, General Dynamics near Ft. Worth, and Bell
Aircraft's helicopter division at Hurst. In 1997, Texas was the
headquarters to 36 Fortune 500 companies, including Exxon, which ranked as
the 3rd-largest industrial corporation.

Earnings of persons employed in Texas increased from $355.7 billion in
1997 to $388.3 billion in 1998, an increase of 9.2%. The largest
industries in 1998 were services, 26.3% of earnings; state and local
government, 10.3%; and transportation and public utilities, 9.1%. Of the
industries that accounted for at least 5% of earnings in 1998, the slowest
growing from 1997 to 1998 was state and local government, which increased
5.1%; the fastest was wholesale trade (6.7% of earnings in 1998), which
increased 11.3%.